The applicants, two biomechanical engineers, a corneal physiologist and a corneal surgeon are proposing a collaborative study of basic corneal biomechanics. Specifically, we intend to compare the mechanical properties of the corneas of various species with those of man. To this end, we will conduct constant strain rate, stress relaxation and creep tests on corneal strips. We will perform similar experiments on corneas split at mid-stroma to identify the contributions of the anterior an posterior layers. we will also apply existing methodologies, like moire; fringe techniques, to study the biomechanics of the intact cornea. Experimental data like these have not been applied to clinical problems hence the need for our proposed pilot study. The data may be releant to animal modeling of approaches to altering the corneal shape where mechanical factors are important (e.g., radial keratotomy). The data also will be used to determine a stress-strain-time (constitutive) law for the cornea and the relative importance of the varius corneal structures to the biomechanics of the intact cornea. A constitutive law is of fundamental importance in biomechanics. It forms the basis for future research into the biomedical factors government corneal shape.